People approach blawg comments very differently.  Some write them out, edit them, review them, send them around for approval from their friends, and then cut and paste them into the comment section.  They probably spend more time than I do writing.  Others write the first thing that pops into their head, no thought, preparation or revision.  Either way, they show up, and the author lives with the consequences.

It’s my guess that a number of people who posted comments in the past week would, in retrospect, have preferred that they hadn’t.  Whether because they were posted in the heat of passion, or just seemed like a good idea at the time, they weren’t received as well as the authors thought they would be.  The typical reaction, when things don’t go as planned, is to persist in pushing the argument, more often than not resulting in the situation getting worse and, all too often, embarrassing.  The old adage, when you’re in a hole, stop digging, comes to mind.  This is a tough lesson.

I occasionally look at a comment I’ve written and find, after reflection, that it’s unclear, not what I meant to say or just wrong and/or stupid.  But I have an advantage that others here don’t.  I have the keys to the blawg, and can revise my comments at will.  It’s unfair to everyone else, of course, but that’s the blawger’s prerogative, and I have no plans on giving it up. 

That said, I receive the occasional email from someone who has posted a comment which the author later decides is something they wish they hadn’t.  I completely understand.  Provided that the comment hasn’t generated replies, I will usually accommodate a request to remove or amend someone’s comment.  The comments aren’t intended to be a game of gotcha, and revising one’s thoughts is a normal and natural occurrence. 

I’m not talking here about a typo or improper tense.  Anyone who makes a big deal of trivial errors like that in a comment is a jerk.  Everybody gets a free pass on such mistakes in the comments, so don’t even bother asking me to correct them.  This is a blawg, not an appellate brief. And I have no plans on being your personal secretary or spellchecker.  Heck, I won’t even do that for myself.

But when you do what I do, post a comment that in retrospect does not reflect what you believe or mean, I want to offer you the opportunity to take it back.  Of course, I can’t do this once the conversation following a comment has grown around it.  That would be unfair to those who’ve relied on the comment and moved forward.  Once people reply, the best you can do is explain yourself.  And if you wrote in haste and realize that your comment is wrong, it wouldn’t hurt to say so.  Most people respect someone who admits a mistake rather than just keeps digging.

This isn’t to say that I plan to give everyone a mulligan.  If you’ve put a controversial point out there which reflects your position, but are later embarrassed by the fact that reveals that you suffer from some serious personality defect, don’t expect me to sanitize it.  But I will try to be a little more user friendly when appropriate.  Too many comments lately will come back to haunt their authors in ways they may not really deserve.  I’m just trying to help.